YORBA LINDA (CNS) - A wind-driven brush fire on the west end of Corona today quickly spread into Orange County, threatening thousands of homes in Yorba Linda and blackening hundreds of acres.
Initially called the Green Fire and later renamed the Blue Ridge Fire, the blaze was reported at 12:55 p.m. adjacent to the Green River Golf Club, just off of Green River Road and the Riverside (91) Freeway, according to the Corona Fire Department.
By 4:30 p.m., it had spread to 1,100 acres and forced the evacuation of 70,000 homes in Yorba Linda, said Orange County Fire Authority Brian Fennessy.
“It's headed to the Bobcat Ridge trail,'' Fennessy said late this afternoon.
About 550 firefighters we3re battling the blaze.
The high winds grounded aircraft used to battle fires for most of the day, but by late this afternoon, a DC-10 was up in the air making air drops in Yorba Linda, Fennessy said.
The fire chief expects more air drops this evening.
“But we're also told we can expect (winds) to increase in the early morning hours until they die off sometime tomorrow afternoon,'' he said.
Multiple engine crews from the city and Riverside County Fire Department encountered flames moving rapidly west up a hillside, powered by 30 mph Santa Ana winds. The head of the fire entered Orange County about 1:20 p.m., and the flames raced toward Yorba Linda, posing a threat to scores of residences.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.
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